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Sylvania Waters is a suburb in southern Sydney located in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 21 kilometres (13 miles) south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Sutherland Shire. == History == Politician Thomas Holt (1811–1888) owned the land that stretched from Sutherland to Cronulla. Holt had built Sutherland House on the foreshore of Gwawley Bay in 1818, on the eastern side of Sylvania, which took its name from the original wooded vegetation. The word “Sylvania” comes from the Latin word sylvan or sylva which means “forest land”. He established the Sutherland Estate Company in 1881 and a village grew there, with a post office opening in 1883. The school opened in 1884 but closed in 1891 and was not reopened until 1925. Sylvania Heights Public School opened in 1955. Sylvania Waters Estate was developed by LJ Hooker in the 1960s, with much of the land reclaimed from the bay, effectively destroying the mangrove ecosystem to provide water frontages with boating facilities. James Goyen won the tender to design the estate, construct the houses, and promote the new suburb. Streets of the development were named after Australian rivers – such as Shoalhaven, Tweed, Murrumbidgee, Hawkesbury and Barwon – to emphasize the association with water.
